•  Otterburn, Northumberland

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Otterburn like this:

OTTERBURN, a village, a township, and a chapelry in Elsdon parish, Northumberland. The village stand son the river Reed, at the influx of a brook of its own name, near Watling-street, 4½ miles N by W of Woodburn r. station, and 8 N N E of Bellingham; is a pleasant place, screened by trees, at the foot of the Cheviot hills; figured, in the time of Edward I., as then possessing a corn mill; givesname to a famous battle fought in its vicinity, in 1388, between the English and the Scots; had a castle which the Scots, on the eve of that battle, "attacked so long and so unsuccessfully that they were fatigued, and therefore sounded a retreat; " and now has a post-office under Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a good inn, a cloth-mill, a church, and a United Presbyterian chapel. ...

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The surrounding.estates, with the old castle, belonged to the family of Hall, long the head of a strong border clan; and were forfeited in 1715, when John Hall, popularly known as Mad Jock Ha', was executed at Tyburn for participatingin the rebellion of that year. A modern edifice, called the Tower, the seat of T. James, Esq., occupies the site of the ancient castle; encloses some remains of it; and has, in the porch, three fine Roman altars, brought from the Roman station at Rochester, 5 miles to the N W. The church was built in 1858, at a cost of £3,000, defrayed by Misses Davidson and Mrs. Askew; contains a richly carved stone screen; and has a fine Ememorial window, inserted in 1866, to the memory ofits founders. The U. P. chapel was erected in 1834, and is a plain building. A very strong chalybeate spring is at the end of the village; a strong sulphurous one is about a mile to the S; and another spring, called the Wishing well, is in the vicinity. The battle of Otterburn was noted for the toughness of its fight, for the capture of Sir Henry Percy, the famous " Hotspur, " and for the death of James, Earl of Douglas; is the subject of a well-known ballad given in " Percy's Reliques, " and inmultitudes of later publications; is minutely describedby Froissart; and is commonly identified with the some-what mythic battle of Chevy Chase. The scene of it is generally placed on the W of the Otter burn, at a spotstill called Battle-croft and Battle-riggs; but, in order to agree with the descriptions of Froissart, ought rather tobe placed on a spot on the E of the Otter, near the ancient trackway from Eldon to Newcastle. A curious obelisk, about 25 feet high, stands about a mile W of the village; is approached by a short avenue of trees, and surrounded by Scotch pines; bears the name of Percy's Cross; and is said to mark the spot where the Earl of Douglas fell. The township bears the name of Otterburn-Ward, and comprises 8, 517 acres. Pop., 378. Houses, 66. The manor belongs to T. James, Esq. The chapelry does not seem to have defined limits; and it was a separate charge, with income of £200, till 1868; but is now annexed to the rectory of Elsdon.

Otterburn through time

Otterburn is now part of Tynedale district. Click here for graphs and data of how Tynedale has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Otterburn itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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